German bike and component company Storck has been building bikes under the Storck name since 1995, and lightweight components for even longer. The company was briefly in the States, but after frolicking in what we imagine is warmer, less-crowded environments, it has made the long journey back. One of the first stops? Outdoor Demo at Interbike, to show off the new “This is Cross” (T.I.X.) cyclocross bike.
We had the chance to talk with Markus Storck himself in Vegas, and hop on his T.I.X. carbon cyclocross bike for a very brief spin. At first glance, you might think it’s just-another-Asian-made-carbon-cyclocross-frame. But it’s not. Everything is proprietary, and everything with the label is made in Germany.
The frame, fork seatpost and handlebar are all carbon, and are all designed with a carbon lay-up that is optimized to maximize vertical compliance. Storck’s demonstration of these properties in the handlebar and seatpost makes it apparent that it’s more than just marketing hype—its easy to feel the stiffness of the handlebar when pulling up or twisting, but feel some give when pushing straight down. Some may find that discerning, others may find it to lead to a smooth ride.
Storck maintains that the frame and fork are also designed with this vertical compliance in mind, and a quick spin by two of us around the dirt and gravel of Bootleg Canyon on over-inflated tubulars seems to prove this out.
Former cyclocross World Champion Hanka Kupfernagel will be piloting a Storck T.I.X. this season and shall be out to prove the merits of Strock’s engineering.
Of course such engineering will cost you. The frameset alone will retail for 2000 Euro in the States. That’s about $2570 at the time of this article. In Europe it’s 1799 € without the import fees.
The company has a long history of pleasing weight weenies, and the T.I.X. cyclocross frame weighs just 940 grams, and the exotically-built bike as displayed weighs a mere 6.6kg without pedals. With a full suite of Storck components include carbon PowerArm cranks and Lightweight wheels will cost you. In Europe, an Ultegra 6970 Di2 build without wheels still runs 4,498 €. If you want a bike like the one we saw? Hopefully price is of no concern.
The company has just seven dealers currently in the States, but is aggressively seeking more. Stay tuned as we’ll be giving a T.I.X. a full review in the near future.
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